Bôa

Bôa
Origin	London, England
Genres	Alternative rock Indie rock
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Polystar, Geneon
Members	Jasmine Rodgers Steve Rodgers Alex Caird Lee Sullivan
Past members	Paul Turrell Ben Henderson Ed Herten

Template:Two other uses Bôa are a British alternative/indie band formed in London in 1993 by drummer Ed Herten.

Their latest album, Get There, was released on February 1, 2005. It took Bôa in a new direction, with more structure in lyrics and melody, as well as a more mellow, yet more harder-edged/indie-rock format. It also had more acoustic elements than the first album.

Biography

Bôa were originally a funk band formed in 1993 by drummer Ed Herten, keyboardist Paul Turrell and Steve Rodgers on guitar and vocals.

Alex Caird, who had played with Ed in another band Draggin' Bones, was soon recruited on bass guitar. Steve's younger sister, Jasmine Rodgers, was invited to sing the chorus part of one of their first songs called "Fran", and she soon became the lead singer of the group. Ben Henderson, who had played with Alex in the band Doctor Sky, was recruited shortly afterwards to play saxophone.

Their first live performance was in January 1994 at the London Forum supporting Steve and Jasmine's father, classic rock singer Paul Rodgers (of Free & Bad Company fame). In the summer of the same year, Ed Herten decided to leave the band to concentrate on his studies, and they recruited a new drummer, Lee Sullivan. Lee Sullivan is the son of Terry Sullivan, drummer in the band Renaissance. Lee brought a rockier feel to the group's sound which complemented a natural progression away from funk by the band and a migration from saxophone to guitar by Ben Henderson. In 2000, Ben Henderson left the band to concentrate on his other band, Moth, with his wife, singer songwriter Tina. BoA continued to perform live and in September 2002, they held a live performance at the Hammersmith Apollo (London) and received strong accolades for their performance.

Bôa honed their live performances with many gigs in across the South of England and, in 1996, they accepted a recording contract with a Japanese Company, Polystar. They recorded three songs, "Twilight", "Deeply", and "Elephant" in London, with producer Darren Allison (Spiritualized, The Divine Comedy), and further tracks with producer Neil Walsh. Although the album was recorded and produced in England, Jasmine and Steve traveled to Japan in 1998 to promote the debut album Race of the Thousand Camels, which was released only in that country.

While signed with Polystar, the band released their first single in 1998, called "Duvet". It was an instant success in Japan and became the opening theme of the anime series Serial Experiments Lain. "Duvet" was also on the 1998 album Race of a Thousand Camels in Japan. Race of a Thousand Camels was retitled to Twilight and then released to a US audience in 2001 by Pioneer Music. Tall Snake EP was also released by Polystar in 2000. "Duvet" was remixed and in October 2003 was released on another Lain soundtrack titled the Serial Experiment Lain Soundtrack: Cyberia Mix. The band also released a video to go with the single which is reported to be filmed on top of the roof of Lee Sullivan's flat.

The band then began touring more extensively and used this time to gain inspiration for their next album. Then, Bôa signed to Geneon (formerly Pioneer), U.S. distributors of Lain, and went to perform a live concert at the Otakon convention in the same year, being well-received. In 2001, Bôa released their U.S. debut album called Twilight, on Pioneer's label by Todd Culberhouse with songs from their original Japanese album plus other new tracks, and made their first mini-tour in Los Angeles to promote the album. But in that year they had another loss: Paul Turrell left the band to pursue other interests.

By 2003, the band decided to establish their own recording label, called BoA Recordings. They then returned to the recording studio which resulted in their next successful album titled Get There which was released independently by BoA Recordings in 2004. The band started to record their third album in 2003 but was released in 2005, called Get There, and is on sale the iTunes Store. However, both their albums Twilight and Get There can be found on their official distributor CD Baby.

Recently, in 2012, the band started a JustGiving page and announced their support to raise money for AAR JAPAN - a charity that is responding to the devastating impact of the 2011 Tsunami. This charity is close the band's heart for the fan support that they have received in Japan.

Members

Current line up

• Jasmine Rodgers – lead vocals, acoustic guitars, percussion
• Steve Rodgers – electric and acoustic guitars, vocals
• Alex Caird – bass guitars
• Lee Sullivan – drums, percussion, keyboards

Original line up

• Jasmine Rodgers – lead vocals, acoustic guitars, percussion
• Steve Rodgers – electric and acoustic guitars, vocals
• Alex Caird – bass guitars
• Lee Sullivan – drums, percussion, keyboards
• Paul Turrell – composer, keyboards, strings arrangements, percussion, electric guitars on Race of a Thousand Camels and Twilight albums and Tall Snake EP
• Ben Henderson – composer, electric and acoustic guitars, saxophone, percussion on Race of a Thousand Camels and Twilight albums and Tall Snake EP

Session musicians

• Sue Baker – 1st violin
• Jude Gonella – 2nd violin
• Kate Wills – viola
• Hannah Birch – cello

Discography

• Duvet (1997)
• The Race of a Thousand Camels (1998)
• Serial Experiments of Lain OST 'Duvet' (1998)
• Tall Snake EP (1999)
• Twilight (2001)
• Serial Experiment Lain Soundtrack: Cyberia Mix 'Duvet remix' (2003)
• Get There (2005)

External links

• Paul Turrell's web site (Boa 1993 - 2001)
• Jasmine Rodgers' MySpace page
• Moth's website